Serving multiple dealerships is not difficult simply because there are more vehicles. The complexity comes from the differences between the accounts. One dealer may have different photo packages, pricing, window sticker and Buyers Guide designs, inventory feeds, billing requirements, key procedures, and merchandising services than the dealership down the street.
WalkTheLot lets the lot-service company manage those differences at the dealer level while giving field technicians a familiar way to work from one rooftop to the next. The office can configure what belongs to each account, and MobileLot can present the technician with the inventory, instructions, approved window sticker and Buyers Guide designs, and services relevant to the dealer they are actually servicing.
The data flow can differ by rooftop too. Some dealerships send existing inventory into WalkTheLot through an upstream Tier 1 provider, with newly captured photos and media automatically returned to that source. For other dealerships, WalkTheLot can serve as the primary inventory source and distribute vehicle data and media to the dealer's configured destinations.
WalkTheLot has been refined through more than 25 years of working directly with lot-service companies, where supporting many dealerships without creating unnecessary field complexity has always been part of the job.
A service provider needs consistency for its own employees, but that does not mean every dealership should be configured the same way. Different accounts may receive different services, pay different prices, use different window stickers or Buyers Guides, receive inventory from different sources, or have completely different instructions for how technicians should work the store.
The useful separation is simple: administrators manage the differences; technicians work from them. The field employee should not have to remember which dealer gets which package, which window sticker or Buyers Guide design is approved, what the account pays for a service, where its inventory originates, or what special instructions apply to that rooftop.
A technician who services the same route every week eventually learns the details of those dealerships. The real test comes when somebody is on vacation, calls out sick, changes routes, or leaves the company and another employee has to cover the account.
WalkTheLot gives the provider places to keep those dealership-specific details with the dealership. Dealer Notes can contain practical information such as key-machine procedures, who to check in with, whether an invoice should be shown to a manager before leaving, connectivity problems on part of the lot, or where a printer can be powered.
The same concept extends to the work itself. Dealer-specific services and pricing can be configured ahead of time. Dealer window stickers, window labels, Monroney labels, and FTC Buyers Guides can be designed in WebLot and given meaningful names so the technician can select the correct approved window sticker or Buyers Guide design in MobileLot. Designs still awaiting dealer approval can remain in Draft status and stay out of the technician's available list.
The more account knowledge the company keeps with the account, the easier it becomes for another employee to service the rooftop correctly.
The goal is not to make every dealership identical. It is to give your company one familiar way to manage dealerships that are not identical.
Set up the dealership and the account-specific information your company needs to service it.
Use an available upstream inventory feed when the dealer already has a primary inventory source, or support direct inventory capture when WalkTheLot is serving as that source.
Define the services and pricing that apply to the dealership and make its approved dealer window stickers, window labels, Monroney labels, and FTC Buyers Guides available to the field team.
Use Dealer Notes for practical information the technician may need when arriving at or completing work for that dealership.
In MobileLot, the employee works from the appropriate dealer inventory and uses the tools and choices that apply to the account being serviced.
The technician can select completed billable services while working the vehicle instead of asking the office to reconstruct the visit later.
Vehicle data and media can be published as each unit is completed or in batches. When inventory originated with another Tier 1 source, WalkTheLot can automatically return the newly captured photos or media to that provider. When WalkTheLot is the primary inventory source, vehicle data and media can be distributed to the dealer's configured downstream destinations.
Administrators can continue managing dealer accounts, users, window sticker and Buyers Guide designs, inventory, invoices, and other operational settings from the WebLot side of the platform.
A growing service provider needs employees to recognize the same basic workflow everywhere while still respecting the services, pricing, inventory sources, window sticker and Buyers Guide designs, distribution paths, and procedures that make each dealership different.
WalkTheLot gives lot-service companies a common operating platform without requiring the dealerships they serve to become interchangeable.
An administrator can configure the services and pricing appropriate to each dealership. Field technicians see the relevant service choices for the dealer they are servicing rather than one enormous company-wide list.
Dealer window stickers, window labels, Monroney labels, and FTC Buyers Guides can be designed and named for the account so technicians can identify the correct approved design. Draft designs can remain hidden from MobileLot until they are ready for field use.
One dealership may provide inventory through an upstream Tier 1 source while another relies on WalkTheLot as its primary inventory source. The service provider can support both models without forcing every rooftop into the same data flow.
Employees can have their own WalkTheLot logins instead of sharing the account owner's credentials. Field employees do not need access to owner-level billing information, and an employee's access can be removed if they leave without changing the master account password for everyone else.
When another technician has to cover a dealership, information such as Dealer Notes, current inventory, approved window sticker and Buyers Guide designs, and configured service choices can help reduce the amount of rooftop knowledge that has to be passed along verbally.
WalkTheLot records account activity and retains recent inbound and outbound feed logs. When inventory is missing, a feed is questioned, or a vehicle was changed or deleted, that history can help determine whether the cause was a user action, an incoming inventory feed, or another part of the workflow.
WalkTheLot separates the administrative complexity of managing many dealer accounts from the practical mobile workflow employees need while moving from rooftop to rooftop.
WebLot gives administrators a central environment for managing the dealer accounts behind the field operation. That can include users, inventory, services and pricing, window sticker and Buyers Guide designs, invoices, media workflows, and other dealer-specific configuration.
As the number of dealerships grows, the provider can continue managing those differences from one broader company environment rather than treating every account as a separate software installation.
A growing operation should not depend on everyone sharing one master username and password. WalkTheLot supports individual employee logins so staff can perform their work without exposing account-owner information they do not need.
If an employee leaves the company, that user can be removed without changing credentials for everyone who remains.
The technician can move into the dealership they are servicing and work from that account's inventory and configured workflow. Dealer Notes can provide practical rooftop instructions while approved window sticker and Buyers Guide designs and service choices remain tied to the appropriate dealer.
That makes it easier for field staff to move between accounts without relying entirely on memory or instructions passed around outside the system.
Not every rooftop has the same inventory architecture. Some dealerships provide WalkTheLot with inventory from an upstream Tier 1 provider. Field technicians can refresh and work from those existing vehicle records without recreating inventory that already exists.
After the service company captures new photos or other media, WalkTheLot can automatically send that media back to the upstream provider through the configured return feed. That source can then continue handling distribution to the dealer's website and other destinations.
For smaller or independent dealerships where the lot-service company is responsible for maintaining inventory, MobileLot can support VIN capture, vehicle decoding, equipment and vehicle details, photography, and publishing directly from the field workflow.
When WalkTheLot is serving as the primary inventory source, it can automatically distribute the dealer's vehicle data and media to configured destinations such as the dealer's website provider and other inventory or classified destinations.
One dealership may purchase standard photography while another uses prebook photos, full photo sets, live video, exterior or interior 360s, background removal and replacement, branded media, dealer window stickers, Buyers Guides, or another mix of merchandising services.
The platform can support those account differences without requiring every technician to treat every dealer as though it buys the same package.
Services and prices can be configured by dealership, allowing field technicians to record the billable work performed on individual vehicles with only a few taps.
Charges can accumulate for the dealer's normal billing cycle along with applicable non-vehicle items such as administration, maintenance, or backend fees. The provider can then produce detailed invoices showing which vehicles received which services.
More dealerships also means more inventory feeds and more opportunities for somebody to ask why a vehicle disappeared, whether inventory was received, or whether an outbound feed was sent. WalkTheLot retains seven days of inbound and outbound feed logs along with account activity that can help trace what occurred.
That history can be especially valuable when the service provider is caught between the dealership and another technology vendor and needs something more reliable than everyone's recollection of what happened.
WalkTheLot helps lot-service companies keep dealer-specific inventory, instructions, services, pricing, window sticker and Buyers Guide designs, media workflows, data distribution, billing, and field execution organized as the number of rooftops grows.
Explore how WalkTheLot handles dealer inventory, automotive photography, merchandising, invoicing, and recurring lot-service workflows across the dealerships your company serves.
Related search topics: MULTI ROOFTOP DEALER SERVICE SOFTWARE MULTI-ROOFTOP DEALER SOFTWARE DEALER GROUP SERVICE SOFTWARE MULTI DEALER SERVICE PROVIDER SOFTWARE
Explore additional WalkTheLot tools for dealership merchandising, lot services, and window sticker automation.
Related dealership topics covering vehicle merchandising, window labels, and dealership media workflows.
